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The
Presidency on Tuesday said the 2016 budget, which President Muhammadu
Buhari signed into law, was not padded.

The
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate), Senator Ita Enang; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President
on National Assembly Matters, Mr. Ismail Kawu, made the Presidency’s position
on the lingering crisis in the House of Representatives known when they
appeared before the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress at the
party’s headquarters.

They
told the party leaders that they were at the headquarters to make the Presidency’s
position on the matter known.

But
members of the Transparency Group, a group of lawmakers backing the former
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, faulted the
Presidency, insisting that the allegation of padding should be investigated.

Jibrin
had accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and some officers of the House of
padding the 2016 budget.

The
APC had intervened in the matter last week, as its leadership separately met
with Dogara and Jibrin. The efforts, however, failed.

Enang,
while addressing journalists after the meeting on Tuesday, said, “I am here on
the invitation of the APC leadership with my colleague (Kawu) to answer
questions on the 2016 Appropriation Act.

“We
have given explanation on every issue. There is nothing, to our knowledge, like
padding of the budget. The budget, as assented to by the President, is the
budget passed by the National Assembly and it is being executed.

“For
now, the party is handling it as a domestic issue; a party issue. All of us
have been told not to make public comments because the matter is still under
consideration.

“We
will not want to go into the details so that we will not breach the party’s
directive or pre-empt the outcome of the party’s probe.’’

When
asked if the Presidency had cleared Dogara of padding the budget, Enang said
the Presidency would not “draw conclusions.”

He
said, “I will say we came here as persons who work as liaison officers on the
budget. The party wanted us to make clarifications and we have made those
clarifications.

“We
will not draw any conclusion. Please, let us not go too far by mentioning any
office. Let it be that two of us have appeared before the party.”

When
asked again if the Presidency’s denial of the padding of the budget had
dismissed Jibrin’s allegation, Enang stated that there was nothing like padding
in the legislature.

He
said the legislature had the constitutional duty to amend the Appropriation
Bill sent to it by the President.

“In
all our years of legislative engagement, we have yet to find in the legislative
lexicon the word, ‘padding.’ When the budget is presented before the
legislature, the legislature is to consider the budget and pass as it deems
fit.

“So,
what the legislature passes becomes the Appropriation Act upon assent.
Therefore, any word which has yet to crystallise in legislative lexicon, you
cannot hear us mention it.”